Makunouchi Ippo
Makunouchi Ippo (幕之内一歩) is a Featherweight in fighter from the Kamogawa Boxing Gym and the current JBC Featherweight Champion. Power: 20/20 Stamina: 19/20 Speed: 17/20 Talent: 17/20 Skill: 17/20 Genius status: 0/1 (Ippo is not a genius, just a boxer who is exceptional at his boxing style) Personality At the start of the series Ippo is a 16-year-old high school student. He is usually a kind and reserved person who dislikes fighting, and because of that he had been bullied since grade school. He has a sturdy body and steady legs thanks to years of working for his family's fishing boat rental, and he possesses great courage against all enemies. Despite his strength and courage, Ippo still behaves rather meek out of the ring and often humbles himself around his rivals. For example, even though he has defeated both Mashiba Ryou and Sendou Takeshi, he fears Mashiba and tries to avoid discussing a second rematch with Sendou whenever he is around. He also continued to be intimidated by Umezawa Masahiko, his former bully, long after he began boxing. He has a great deal of respect for his gymmate Takamura Mamoru and former Japanese Featherweight Champion Date Eiji and he was completely shocked when World Featherweight Champion Ricardo Martinez requested a spar with him. His dream is to one day face Miyata Ichirou in the pro ring, and the two of them view each other as eternal rivals. Despite these feelings towards each other, they appear to also view each other as friends and Ippo even refers to Miyata as Miyata-kun (宮田くん). Because Ippo tends to know a lot about Miyata, people tend to call him a Miyata Otaku, while his gymmates jokingly imply that he must be "gay for Miyata". At the same time, Ippo aims to become equal to Takamura in terms of strength. Coach Kamogawa puts him through strict training and the two of them have a strong teacher-student bond. Ippo trusts the coach and has faith in his teachings, while Kamogawa believes that Ippo may be the one who will eventually realize his World Championship dream. Takamura has said that Kamogawa seem more like Ippo's father than his coach, and because Ippo's father died when he was young he begins to view Kamogawa in that way. Ippo is quite friendly, and many of his rivals have become friends of his, most notably are Miyata, Sendou, Date, Sanada Kazuki, and Kobashi Kenta, whom all still keep in touch with him from time to time. He is well liked by his gymmates, especially Takamura (who picks on him relentlessly), Aoki Masaru, and Kimura Tatsuya. Even though he still has the personality of a young boy, he still manages to serve as a good senpai for his kouhai Itagaki Manabu. When it comes to love, Ippo is definitely a late bloomer, he is naive, pure-hearted, and awkward. He is in love with Mashiba Kumi whom he dates frequently, and she feels the same for him, but because of the silent pressure of Kumi's older brother Ryou, the "attacks" of reporter Iimura Mari and Itagaki Nanako, and the meddling of Takamura and the others, their relationship has yet to progress much. The one time Ippo confessed to her, Kumi had fallen asleep after drinking too much alcohol, and unfortunately she didn't hear it. After his father died he was raised by his mother Hiroko and grew up assisting her with the family fishing boat business. He was originally supposed to take over the business from her, but she decided to postpone it until after his boxing career is over. When she was hospitalized after collapsing from overwork, Ippo considered retiring from boxing to run the business, but Umezawa asked Ippo to let him take over so Ippo could continue boxing. Also, Ippo's boxing trunks were handmade by his mother. He apparently has a very large penis(tite), which Takamura often teases him for. He has pantsed Ippo in front of waitresses, reminded him of his size during a match, and even discussed it in front of Kumi. His given name Ippo means "one step", creating a pun in the series' title (as Hajime means "beginning" or "first", therefore "The First Step"). Nicknames Appearance Ippo has black, somewhat shaggy hair with a full back and a very muscular body. Boxing style Ippo's boxing style is said to be modeled after Mike Tyson and Hamada Tsuyoshi. He is a natural In Fighter, a great Hard Puncher with an impressive KO rate of 100%.his style has had vast improvements which now consists of sways and liverblows, that eventually lead to the dempsey roll his finishing move. His strong flurry of blows have earned him the title Wind God (while Ichirou Miyata has the title Lightning God due to his fast blows). He is the number one In Fighter in Japan. Training One of the main reason's of Ippo's success in the series is his willingness to train. To his won surprise Ippo had already developed a physical base that would help him in boxing and in particular his own fighting sytle. Years of helping his mother carrying the fishing crates to and from the boat helped develope his muscles and also constantly moving around on the fishing boat helped him develope a good lower body as well as good balance. To train for his fight with Jason Osma, he ran full speed at bars at the park in order to speed up his ducking so as to avoid Osmas powerful hooks. Before the rest of the Rookie King Tournament, he embarks on his first training camp with the Kamogawa gym, the camp was held at the beach and it improved Ippo's lower body strength and endurance due to all the running on the sand. To prepare for the Volg Zangief fight , coach Kamogawa had ippo build up his lower body , with many hill runs and squats in order to build the strength needed to throw the gazelle punch. In Ippo's return fight after the loss to Date, he trained his lower body even more with harsh sprints, he also decided to improve his bobbing and weaving and unknowingly used a not so polished version of the dempsey roll. To prepare for his second fight with Sendou, he had a training camp in the mountains, there Nekota, introduced Ippo to chopping wood to help develope Ippo's back strength, and running in the mountains added more leg training. Techniques *Peek-a-Boo Style *Turtle Strategy *Dempsey Roll *New Dempsey Roll *Gazelle Punch *Liver Blow *Sakki *Counter *One Centimeter Punch *Shoulder Block *Swing *Cross Arm Block *Heart Break Shot (first used in fight with Gedo) *Jolt Blow Iron Fist Story Early Life Not much is known in Ippo's early life, except for his childhood when his father died in a boat accident. Like at the present Ippo was a very shy, kind and obedient kid. He was also very strong willed and stubborn. During the time when his father (Kazuo) was missing out in the sea, Ippo went everyday to the shore to wait for his return. He believed his father's words that upon his return he will never leave Ippo and Hiroko again. Although his father never returned, Ippo was somehow able to satisfy himself that his father fulfilled his promise by finding the cap he wears during his father's departure. High School and Pro Debut One day when he was being tormented by Umezawa and his gang he was saved by Takamura (who was in the middle of his Road Work at the time). After that he began to take up boxing in order to learn what it means to be strong. After joining the Kamogawa Boxing Gym he meets Miyata Ichirou and has 2 sparring matches against him. In the first fight Ippo displays his impressive stamina but is still outright defeated, in the second fight however Ippo manages to hit Miyata's jaw with an uppercut and gains an unexpected KO victory. Because of this, Miyata leaves the gym in order to be able to face Ippo again in the Pro Ring, and the become each other's Eternal Rival. Ippo then takes the pro-boxer licensure exam and pass it with ease. After the test he meets Mashiba Ryou who is in the same weight class as him. Mashiba tells him to move another weight class, but Ippo does not yield and tells him that he want to fulfill his promise to Miyata that they would meet in the pro-ring again in the rookie kings tournament. Pro-Debut Match: Oda Yusuke Second Match: Fujiwara Yoshio Rookie King Tournament After winning two fights upon his debut as a pro-boxer, Coach Kamogawa enlisted him in the East Japan Rookie King Tournament. Ippo also had his own goal in the tournament which is to fight with Miyata in the Pro Ring for their tie-breaker match. With his goal, Ippo aims to reach the East Japan finals to full to a promised fight. First Round : Jason Ozuma Second Round : Kobashi Kenta Semi-final Round : Hayami Ryuuichi East Japan Final Round : Mashiba Ryou All Japan Final Round : Sendou Takeshi Championship Road After winning the All Japan Rookie Tournament, Ippo found out his rival Miyata was going overseas. Ippo was left with no current goal at hand. Rehabilitating his hand from the injuries from his previous fight, Ippo rests from training and started supporting his fellow boxers at Kamogawa Gym in their fights. He then meets the current National Feather Weight Champion Date Eiji, who somewhat hints to him that in the future they may face each other since Ippo is already ranked number 10 upon winning the Rookie King Tournament. Ippo then realizes that he wants to fight the Champion and trains for his new goal. Rookie King vs. Rookie King: Okita Keigo Okita is a kouhai Date Eiji, he challenged Ippo to a fight because of he was envious of the way Date fought against Ippo in their spar. Ippo defeats him in the 1st round and sets up his entry into the Class A tournament. Class A Tournament Semi-Finals (1st Round): Saeki Takuma Class A Tournament Finals: Alexander Volg Zangief First Japanese Featherweight Title Match: Date Eiji Comeback Match: Ponchai Chuwatana Second Japanese Featherweight Title Match: Sendou Takeshi Title Defenses as JBC Champion After obtaining the National Japanese Feather Weight Belt from Sendou, Ippo defended the title successfully for seven consecutive times. First Title Defense: Sanada Kazuki The former Japan junior featherweight champion he moved up a weight class in order to challenge Ippo, he had Hama Dankichi in his corner, he showcased a double uppercut nicknamed the "Hien" and the "Tsubame Gaeshi". He was able to remain standing for a moment after recieving the full Dempsey roll, but ultimately fell to the damage caused by it. Second Title Defense: Hammer Nao A former member of the Kamogawa gym and former kouhai of Ippo, he dropped down from junior welterweight in order to get the chance to fight ippo. Ippo tried to end the fight as quickly as possible so that Nao would not recieve much damage, but Nao was able to last until the 2nd round and even landed his signature solo plex shot , but Ippo's superior strength and experiance were fare too much. Third Title Defense: Yi Yonsu Yonsu is the only opponent that Ippo has defeated in the first round as the Japanese Champion. Ippo promised to win this match in the first round so long as Takamura won the junior middleweight title match against Bryan Hawk later thatn night. He knocks Yonsu out with the Dempsey roll and afterwards gets scolded by the Coach for taking such a big risk so early in the fight. Fourth Title Defense: Shimabukuro Iwao Iwao is the only fighter Ippo has ever fought that was shorter than him. This was fight was also for the right to be called Japan's greatest infighter. In this fight Ippo uses a alot more boxing skill than usual, starting off the fight with heavy jabs and using light punches in the end to set up his strong punch which was then followed by the Dempsey roll. Iwao is the first fighter to break the dempsey roll with punches choosing to slug it out , it is successful the first time, but the Second one finishes the fight. Fifth Title Defense: Sawamura Ryuuhei Sawamura presented Ippo with his greatest challenge up to this point, because of he possesed an almost genius like sense for counterpunching, combine that with a rugged toughness as well as a heavy jab and powerful straight right, Ippo is pushed very hard in this fight and reveals an evolved form of the Dempsey roll, one with a sudden stop, to make the attack less predictable and more effective. It should be noted that Sawamura had Ippo in serious trouble , in the 4th round but instead of finishing it then he chose to do more damage to Ippo and that in turn back fired. Sixth Title Defense: Karasawa Takuzou Karasawa is a former Kouhai of Sanada, this fight showcases Ippo's growth against out boxers, he does not need to use the Dempsey roll, choosing instead to seal the technique so that he can use other methods to win matches and prolong his career. Karasawa has speed similar to Saeki and utilizes it early ,but Ippo uses his experiance to trap him in the corner and land punishing body blows which are even stronger due to him using a hammer to drive logs into a hill. Seventh Title Defense: Take Keiichi Take is the most experianced boxer that Ippo had fought up to this point, as well as the first southpaw he ever fought and was someone that Date Eiji held in high regard. He uses Ippo's inexperiance against southpaws to his advantage through out the fight, and fights in close so as to take away the power of Ippo's rotations on his punches. Ippo turns the fight around by taking a lower stance and using Take's game plan against him. The match ends in Take losing a slugfest after Take chooses not to open up a cut on Ippo's eye and choosing to go out as a proud boxer. Survival Match of Asian Champions After yet another canceled fight with Ichiro Miyata, Ippo lost his drive and thought of retiring from boxing. However with the help of Iimura Mari and the words of his friends and previous opponent, he was able to find his true goal which is to become strong and went back to Kamogawa Gym to continue Boxing. Kamogawa then tells Ippo to aim for the World, but having them cut off the shortest route of getting to the top rankings by beating the OPBF Champ Miyata, Kamogawa tells Ippo that he will take a different path, which is to defeat all of the OPBF National Champions, obtaining their WBC rankings and becoming an unofficial OPBF Champion. Against Thailand National Champion: Jimmy Sisphar His first fight in his goal of defeating all the OBPF national champions is against Sisphar, who earlier in the series was the first fighter to fall to Miyata's jolt counter, ever since the result of that match Sisphar had become a wreckless pure offense infighter with many scars from head butts and infights, because of his many scars he earned the nickname Scratch J. He also developed a full body hook which he called his version of the jolt.In this fight Ippo is forced to add a new element to the dempsey roll, an uppercut which added another dimension to the roll, and one that Sisphar could not counter because his full body Jolts went from a side to side motion and it it left Sisphar open to uppercuts. Against Philippine National Champion: Malcolm Gedo This fight is his second in the OBPF series. This fight is set up when the 7th ranked japanese ranker Fukui, defeated Malcolm Gedo in his hometown, but it was revealed that Gedo had thrown the fight in order to recieve money, he did so without recieveing any damage. This outraged coach Kamogawa and Ippo and in turn caused them to put 3 million yen on the line so that Gedo would fight seriously, Gedo was adept at avoiding any significant damage from Ippo early on in the fight, and because he wore his gloves loose he was able to trick Ippo's dept perception by changing hand positions to creat the illusion of an extending arm. Ippo overcame Gedo because of the results of his sparring with Mashiba Ryou. He is able to avoid a very critical uppercut thrown by Gedo and also overcame the Gedo's illusion when Gedo decided to switch to heavy punches, making his reach more easily read to Ippo. Against Indonesian National Champion: Woli This is the third fight in Ippo's challenge of the OBPF champions. This fight is set up by Miguel Zail, the former trainer of Bryan Hawk and an acquantance from Genji Kamogawa's past. Woli has only 3 fights in his resume before this bout, was a very difficult opponent for Ippo, because of his great talent for boxing, was at a genius level. Despite getting knocked down early Woli controls most of the match with his speed and instincts, and because he was most effective in the corner Ippo had little choice but to aim for body shots, because he couldn't corner Woli. Eventually the body shots had a cumulative effect and took away Woli's mobility, this lead to Ippo landing cleaner shots and finally a showdown in the corner in which Ippo traps Woli in the corner with the Dempsey Roll and eventually knocks him out. Fights Spars This list does not include the numerous spars Ippo has had with his fellow gymmates. *VS Miyata Ichirou 3R KO Loss (Match Simulation) *VS Miyata Ichirou 4R KO Win (Match Simulation) *VS Ogawa Naoya 1R KO Win (Pro Test) *VS Omori 1R (Sparring) *VS Date Eiji 3R (Sparring) *VS Shigeta Akira 3R (Sparring) *VS Ricardo Martinez 1R KO Loss (Sparring) *VS Itagaki Manabu 3R KO Win (Sparring) *VS Imai Kyousuke 3R (Sparring) *VS Volg Zangief 3R KO Loss (Sparring) *VS Imai Kyousuke 2R (Sparring) *VS Mashiba Ryou 3R (Sparring) Successions Category:Male characters Category:Active boxers Category:Characters from Japan Category:Kamogawa Boxing Gym Category:Featherweights Category:In Fighters Category:Japanese Featherweight Champion Category:Eastern Japan Rookie King Category:All Japan Rookie King Category:Makunouchi Fishing Boat Ippo